My story
I was born and raised in Pittsburg. This community has been home for as long as I can remember, and even when life took me elsewhere, I always found my way back.
My path has not been a straight line. After high school I went to San Francisco State and left when I realized I did not have the support and guidance I needed. I enrolled at Carrington College, became a medical assistant, and built a career in healthcare that lasted more than ten years.
Along the way I worked a lot of different jobs. Retail. Medical offices. Amazon Flex. DoorDash. Those years taught me what working class life actually looks like: working hard, making ends meet, and sometimes taking whatever work is available to support your family.
I eventually came home to Pittsburg, bought my first house, and started a family. Today I am a mother of two and back in school finishing my bachelor's degree in Health Science. I refuse to believe that a setback means you stop trying. You keep going.
Becoming a mother changed how I see this community. Pittsburg is where my children are growing up, just as I did, and I want them to have every opportunity to build a future here.
Where I come from
I grew up in a single mother household, with my father in state prison. I have been on food stamps and Medi-Cal. I have stayed up late trying to schedule an Amazon Flex route that paid base rate, then made those deliveries while breastfeeding, with my babies riding along, because that was what it took to make ends meet.
I dropped out of college once, and I went back in my thirties.
None of that is a talking point for me. It is the reason I understand what a rent increase, a road that never gets fixed, or a job that pays a little less than it should actually does to a family in this city.
The moment I decided to run
I did not start this movement thinking I would run for City Council. I was focused on the data center. On getting information to residents, talking with neighbors, organizing rallies, and making sure people knew they had a say in what was happening here.
But out at those rallies the same question kept coming up. Are you going to run for City Council? Then people started telling me I should.
So I looked into what it takes to run. What I found is that this seat does not require a political resume or a lifetime in politics. It requires someone who shows up, does the work, and answers to the people who live here.
I was a resident. A homeowner. A mother. Someone who cared about this community and was already doing the work.
I talked it over with my husband, Frank. I prayed about it, because I did not want to make a decision this size without really sitting with it. Then I decided I was all in. I picked up my paperwork, started collecting signatures, and felt the same neighbors who had stood beside me at rallies telling me to keep going. A week later I filed and took the oath.
I did not wake up one day wanting a title. My community asked me to lead, and I said yes. I have been speaking up for Pittsburg outside City Hall. I am running to do it inside.
Where I show up
Secretary of the Heights Elementary parent booster club. Volunteer at Bay Church, Concord campus. School and youth sports. Founder of Stop Pittsburg Data Center.
Leadership means listening, learning, asking the right questions, standing up when something is not right, and never stopping. That is what I have done my whole life, and that is what I intend to do for Pittsburg.